2024 SLU Volleyball

[PharmBoy]

Trying to remain optimistic about this season, but it seems like this team needs a bit of a jolt.  They have been running the same rotations with the same players (5-1 or 6-2) for weeks and just not showing improvement.  Would love to see a few people that have not gotten playing time to get a shot.  Either they will come in and bring some new energy or at a minimum, it will send a message to the players in the normal rotation that their spot is not necessarily secure. 

[Lord Elrond]

Ramblers take 1st set 25-19

[Lord Elrond]

And Loy-Chi takes set 2, 26-24. Billikens just can’t put it together consistently. Coach Beatty has her work cut out for her.

[Lord Elrond]

And 25-19 Billikens lose set 3.  Just not getting it done, need a big push to make A10 conf tournament 

[OkieBilliken]

This team starts six upper classmen, four of which are graduate students.   These are players who have been through the conference wars.     I dont know a great deal about the sport but it seems like so many matches are pretty close and come down to the last few points.   You would think a veteran team like we have would be able to scratch out some of these close sets, but they lose almost all of them.   I'm not sure if our setting is that bad but our the service reception is abysmal so the setter is always scrambling around.    They have taken a step backwards from last season.   Is it coaching or is it our talent level needs a massive upgrade?  Are they seniors just phoning it in?    Absolutely no idea.  Not making the conference tournament would be bad.   

[Lord Elrond]

1 hour ago, OkieBilliken said:

This team starts six upper classmen, four of which are graduate students.   These are players who have been through the conference wars.     I dont know a great deal about the sport but it seems like so many matches are pretty close and come down to the last few points.   You would think a veteran team like we have would be able to scratch out some of these close sets, but they lose almost all of them.   I'm not sure if our setting is that bad but our the service reception is abysmal so the setter is always scrambling around.    They have taken a step backwards from last season.   Is it coaching or is it our talent level needs a massive upgrade?  Are they seniors just phoning it in?    Absolutely no idea.  Not making the conference tournament would be bad.   

Right now we are out of the conference tournament, but closer than you think. Top 6 teams make it in, right now for the last spots in conference it’s coming down to:

5 - GW 5-6

6 - GM 4-7

7 - Duq 4-8

8 - SLU 4-8

Our next 4 games are against GW at GW next weekend, and GM at home the weekend after. We would probably need to sweep those 4 games, because we close out at home against Dayton (12-0 in conf, 22-1 overall, 16th in RPI when I looked this morning). That would put us 8-10, with a shot at 6th. 

[PharmBoy]

That is my thought as well -we need to/have to sweep GW and GM to have a chance.  IF we can somehow sweep those 2, we will likely end with a conference record of 8-10 which got us in last year's tournament with a 6 seed.  I am not sure who of the teams; GW, GM, and Duq have already played Dayton.  

 

[Lord Elrond]

Got swept by GW this weekend, we may still be mathematically in the running for conference tournament, but it’s an extremely long shot.

[Lord Elrond]

X

[Lord Elrond]

X

[Lord Elrond]

Odd to see Bradley Carnell, former St Louis City SC head coach at a SLU volleyball game, but here he is sitting in the stands. I think he’s with Mitch Hildebrandt, an assistant coach at City SC, who’s married to SLU VB assistant coach Amber Hildebrandt, so I guess there’s the connection.

[billikenfan05]

14 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Odd to see Bradley Carnell, former St Louis City SC head coach at a SLU volleyball game, but here he is sitting in the stands. I think he’s with Mitch Hildebrandt, an assistant coach at City SC, who’s married to SLU VB assistant coach Amber Hildebrandt, so I guess there’s the connection.

Mitch works for City as a sports psychologist. 

[Lord Elrond]

5 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Mitch works for City as a sports psychologist. 

Thanks. His title under his picture on the City SC app with all the other staff only says assistant coach.

[Lord Elrond]

25-19 Billikens take set 1

[Lord Elrond]

SLU takes set 2 25-16

[Lord Elrond]

Interesting. The camera operator for the center camera just walked away in the middle of the game for a few minutes? He’s back now.

[Lord Elrond]

And Billikens win 25-18 in the 3rd, taking the match. GM never really looked like they were in any of the sets.

[Lord Elrond]

Colin Suhre getting it this set, his table nearly got turned over by a player running into it, then he had to move quick to avoid getting hit by a ball. Hazards of the profession.

[Lord Elrond]

Slow start by the Billikens, GM takes the first set 25-19

[Lord Elrond]

Billikens take set 2 25-21

[Lord Elrond]

Billikens take set 3, 26-24

[Lord Elrond]

Billikens win, took set 4 25-18. Had to grind it out today, but a wins a win

[Lord Elrond]

Fun fact, we’re actually extremely close to making the conference tournament, even though we play 2 more matches against Dayton, conference leader, undefeated in conference play, only lost 2 sets out of the 50 total they’ve played Dayton. 
 

Standings:

1.) Dayton 16-0

2.) VCU 14-2 

3.) Loy-Chi 11-5

4.) GW 9-7

5.) Davidson 9-7

6.) SLU 6-10

7.) Duquesne 4-12

8.) GM 4-12

9.) Rhodey 4-12

10.) Fordham 3-13

Relevant Tie Breakers:

A. Head to Head match record of tied teams

B. Head to Head set record of tied teams

C. Head to Head point winning percentage of tied teams (total points won divided by total points played in the matches between the 2 tied teams).

We own tiebreakers over Duquesne and GM.  We are 2-0 in matches against GM, so we have them on the first tiebreaker.

We are 1-1 in matches vs Duquesne, we both won 5 sets head to head, but on the 3rd tiebreaker we won 170 of 315 points against Duquesne, Duquesne won 145 of 315 points. So we own the tiebreaker over them.  Duquesne and GM play each other next week, but even if we lose 2 matches to Dayton and one of them sweep the other, we own the tiebreaker over both of them. They are, right now, both eliminated from the conference tournament.

Rhodey plays Davidson at Davidson. Neither Dayton nor Davidson have anything at stake the remaining games, Dayton has the #1 seed locked up, 4 and 5 seeds play each other in the conf tournament, so Davidson plays GW in the tournament regardless of how the final games play out, and it’s a neutral site to both of them since all games are in Dayton, so not sure how much they will care.  Not getting players hurt, or allowing players who are dinged up to rest, or getting subs who will be playing next year game experience in a meaningless match seems the logical move for both of them.

Rhodey owns the tiebreaker over us, we tied 1-1 in matches, but URI won 5 sets against us to our 4.

If we win 1 match against Dayton, we are in regardless of what Rhodey does. We must lose both against Dayton, and Rhodey must win both on the road against Davidson for Rhodey to beat us out of the last conference tournament slot.

Still not a great season for us, but half our roster are freshmen or redshirt freshmen after all. Getting into the conference tournament would be good experience for the team.

 

 

[Lord Elrond]

While we lost against Dayton yesterday, both Duquesne and Rhodey lost, putting then 2 games behind us with one game left. GM won, so they are only one game behind us.   If we lose Saturday, and GM wins, while that would leave us tied, we own the tiebreaker over GM having beaten them twice. So SLU just clinched the last spot in the conference tournament.

[Lord Elrond]

Dayton wins the first set 25-11. Huge gap between us and them